Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor received the John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity at a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, September 29, 2015.See the speeches by director Jane McAuliffe, professor Jürgen Habermas (after 9 minutes) and professor Charles Taylor (after 38 minutes):See my previous post on the event here.

In an interview with "Deutsche Welle" in Washington, DC, Jürgen Habermas commented on the current refugee crisis in Europe:"The right to asylum is a human right and everyone who applies for political asylum should be treated fairly and, if appropriate, be taken in with all of the associated consequences," said Habermas. In Europe, the situation was overlooked until now, he added.It has long been necessary for Germany and France to develop a common European stance that leads to cooperation in refugee policies, according to Habermas. Though he has often been critical of the German government, he says he currently takes a positive view of Germany's approach: "For many years I haven't been as satisfied with the government in Germany as I have been since the end of September."See also the interview with Habermas in the German newspaper "Handelsblatt": "Dann sind wir verloren, dann ist Europa kaputt“.The German radio station "Das Erste" has a short interview with Habermas here.